Christopher Nolan’s brave new interpretation of Bob Kane’s fascinating character study creation is timely and superior to any version before it.  With his brooding hero, whose only interest is to weed out the evil elements that invade the great but troubled Gotham City, Nolan devises an ultimate in cinematic history.  With the legendary performance of Ledger as the evil Joker, The Dark Knight stands to be as perfect a recreation of Batman that we have seen.

Noted film composers Hans Zimmer, and James Newton Howard combine to create the score for this film.  Hans Zimmer, who already possesses an impressive portfolio of film scores (As Good as It Gets, Gladiator (and other Scott films), Pirates of the Caribbean) including Batman Begins, is a great choice.  James Newton Howard’s portfolio is equally impressive if not more (Prince of Tides, Man in the Moon, Wyatt Earp, the excellent Primal Fear, Sixth Sense (and subsequent M Night Shyamalan films), The Fugitive, and My Best Friend’s Wedding, several of which he has won Oscars for).  On the Dark Knight collaboration, they create a score more in tune with a foreboding atmosphere rather than a ‘in your face’ explosion of sound.

The score is furious and relentless, effectively emphasizing the chase, the characters, and the core darkness of the film’s story.  There are many quiet pieces tucked into this score that build when the time commands it.  Otherwise, the music is designed to explore the swirling grim discontent of Batman, an important thematic element of the film as it looks at evil vs good and their often crisscrossing morality borders. (In Batman Begins, Batman struggles with the well-being and safety of even the evil-doers.  Eventually, he acquiesces by telling Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) that while he will not stoop to killing him, he doesn’t have to save him from certain death, thus compromising his morals to ease his conscience and achieve his ends).

Zimmer and Howard, while not creating a masterwork stand-alone score, do the film justice as long as the images are there for the score to support, which is the expected job of any soundtrack.  The problem is that these Batman films are too big and immersive to allow any room for a score to breathe on its own.